18 July 2016

MISCHIEF BREW

Anyone who pays attention has likely heard about the recent passing of MISCHIEF BREW's Erik Petersen. His presence as a musician and a personality is impossible to overstate, and he will be missed terribly. MISCHIEF BREW played Berkeley last summer, and Karoline and I were for some stupid reason "too busy" or "too tired" to make it to the show. Whatever the excuse was, it seems beyond foolish today as I think about the gracious and understanding response from Erik when I wrote to say we wouldn't be seeing him....my heart goes out to my Philadelphia friends, and especially for Denise (and the pugs!).

Shared several years ago on The Escape, this 2009 collaboration between Erik and GUIGNOL is one of my favorite MISCHIEF BREW related releases (though The Stone Operation probably takes the cake). 


At countless SUBHUMANS and CITIZEN FISH gigs over the years (we first crossed paths on the first SUBHUMANS reunion tour in 1998), Erik would talk about how he hoped he would get to see CULTURE SHOCK someday. Not only did he see them, but he shared the stage for "Civilization Street," a track famously covered by Erik over the years. I saw this video for the first time a few hours before Karoline called me from the CULTURE SHOCK tour to tell me about Erik's death. I watched the video several more times that evening. Mimicking Dick's hand and arm motions at the 0:22 mark...still makes me smile, even with tears in my eyes. 

Philadelphia, 2011
photo: Nick Vadala


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